Celebrating World AIDS Day, One Partner at a Time

Health centers are no strangers to forging partnerships with other organizations. There are health center partnerships with hospitals, health departments, universities, chambers of commerce, and local businesses. These collaborations are key to assuring good patient health outcomes, not to mention boosting their quality of life and overall care. HIV prevention and treatment is no different.

The number of health center patients living with HIV nationwide increased by 53 percent from 2010 – 2014, which makes these partnerships more critical than ever. A case in point is in New Orleans, where CrescentCare is partnering with a ride-sharing service to arrange patients’ transportation to the health center as part of their rapid intake process for newly diagnosed HIV patients. The transportation assistance is just one part of CrescentCare’s overall support services aimed at reducing the number of missed visits. The health center has a 33-year history of caring for people living with HIV and provides other services, such as primary medical care, dental services, behavioral health, Medicaid and other health coverage enrollment, case management and support services such as a food pantry, home delivered meals, housing, peer support, and legal services.

These are just a few snapshots of the partnerships health centers leverage to improve care in their communities. We are highlighting them as part of World AIDS Day (which is today) because the theme for 2017 is “Increasing Impact through Transparency, Accountability, and Partnerships.”

For more information on the free HIV prevention capacity building services, contact Ashley Barrington at abarrington@nachc.org.